Mining Towing missions

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Lord Orion
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Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2015 3:07 pm

Mining Towing missions

Post by Lord Orion »

I think I've proposed something like this for a specific request, but don't know if it was the best place so I'm leaving the idea here for consideration

Compared to combat or salvaging, that have different types, mining is always the same, so I was thinking if something more could be done.

I was thinking an equip of a grapple gun as a secondary weapon for mining would open the chance of finding a larger asteroid of enough rarity to make it worth while a different mining approach.

The player could see an estimate of the value in resources and/or credits for the asteroid (the value and how accurate it was could depend on the skills/certificates/etc of the player).
If he decided to grapple the asteroid he would then need to move the asteroid to the nearest processing station at an increased fuel cost (again may depend on several variables).
Processing stations could be player or npc owned, and may only process some types of asteroid and may have higher or lower stats. Players may use the station themselves or sell the asteroid, for instance, as a percentage of the final result.

During the towing some events/attacks can happen depending on the rarity of the asteroid and place. That would make it possible to match it with new PM ships items or new normal ship items.

An easy asteroid could be made simply of a lot of Water (pure ice asteroids).

Some new resources could be found this way too, for the rarer asteroids.

Just an idea. Say what you think and if it is an interesting enough idea we can try to make it a little more complete :D
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Akkamaddi
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Re: Mining Towing missions

Post by Akkamaddi »

If I'm reading this right....

Start with an interface something like the Derelict exploration. You get the little animated crawler bar, burn one or two fuel, and then you get the result.

I'm going to throw out some math-ish stuff here:

A "scan" roll to see if you find something. Roll a % chance (1-100) (yes, I think in DnD terms), add the current Mining scan rating without the mining laser, square root of the captain level, and square root of the captain's mining skill. You have to get over a certain rating to get a hit.

Say, 1-75% = no hit;
76-100 = Category 1 / %Fragile = 20;
101-120 = Category 2 / %Fragile = 30;
121-135 = Category 3 / %Fragile = 40;
136-145 = Category 4 / %Fragile = 50;
146-150 = Category 5 / %Fragile = 60;
151+ = Category 6 / %Fragile 70;

No hit, "so sorry, play again?" message.

If you find an asteroid, the categories would have names. The player would be told what they found, and fragility.

The "Draw In" is a "draw" roll, a percentile roll. Roll a % chance, add the square root of the captain's level, and the square root of the captain's Device (not mining) skill (as you are operating a tractor device). The draw chance uses Category x2 fuel. If it fails, "so sorry, play again?" message. Successful, and the asteroid gets to the grinder station. Low level captains who get a high quality asteroid may opt not to tow it, if they think they are likely to just shatter the asteroid, and waste 10 or 12 fuel.

A Draw roll of 1-10 *always* shatters the asteroid (stop event before adding bonuses), so even godlike captains loose one in ten.

If the asteroid does shatter, send Category x10 units of common ore to the local refinery, just to be nice.

You could have player made ship parts that give a boost to the towing part, either a fragile check bonus, or cut fuel use, or both. Those of us without player-made ships could replicate this with a POD for a lower bonus, or a CES POD for a better bonus. (Did someone say "Coopsy £ove"?) A player making a ship who wants a long term investment would get permanent bonuses to successfully hauling asteroids, especially if cumulative with the POD. Say, make the built-in PM ship special cut the towing fuel in half and give a +10% bonus to the Draw roll. The Engineered POD (single fit) would give +5% bonus (no fuel adjustment), and the CES POD would give +10% (no fuel adjustment, single fit). The POD would stack with the PM ship special

Then....

Simple solution, at this point you get the mining interface, but the resources generated with each fire reduce the "hit points" of the asteroid, if you pull them or not. (If you generate a lot of ore, you get a lot of ore.) You can't just keep cherry-picking from a good asteroid, so you would want to grab everything. For the Category, reduce the required scan rating for all resources by the Category rating. Category 1 large asteroids would be easy to get, and you might find some new things. Category 6 are likely to be destroyed in transit, burning a lot of fuel, but you have a good chance of finding new things.

Or if you really want to make things complicated....

We can borrow from Salvaging! Re-work the salvaging interface with the categories Mineral, Metal, Gas, Liquid, and Radioactives. You pick a category, and then get a modified mining window, working with your standard sensors and mining laser.

If you don't want to make things complicated, then resources in the asteroid have their scan rating reduced by the Category level, while those to which you tuned your scanner drop it by the Category x1.5 or x2.

Or you can truly go Salvaging, and you raise levels in the mining resource categories just like you do with Cockpit, Sensors, Engine Room, etc., in salvaging. When you have a category at level 0, all resources for that category in the asteroid table are an additional -2 on their scan rating, in addition to dropping by the Category Level. For each level you raise over zero, the scan rating for resources in that category drop by 1. This would be more work, but I think more individualistic in the long run. You could focus on large asteroids, and become very good at finding radioactives or gasses normally beyond your usable equipment.



I think the first half is pretty close to what you are saying. The second half I'm guessing a bit more. I also thought relating it to salvaging would let it parallel existing mechanics. It also has a PM ship module, and engineering blueprint, and a store purchase.
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Akkamaddi
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Re: Mining Towing missions

Post by Akkamaddi »

One quick thing to get out of my head.

Lord Orion, you said "Processing stations could be player or npc owned"

It would be logical to make them annexes to Orbital Refineries.

Start with seven active. Coops can put these NPC owned ones near NEI gates to spread them out.

Then, each Orbital Refinery can get ONE, and the build is a group-build by a guild. The station is tied to a guild.

When any player finishes an asteroid grind (abandon or complete structure points), first, 100 x Category Level credits are deposited into the owning guild's bank. Second, one single mine scan check is made against the resource list, with an effective scan rating of Category Level x10, with the potential result of a single resource. (Think "mining window with one result window", like Salvaging uses.) If this gets a hit, that resource is dropped into the owner guild's stores.

Owning a grinder station would be valuable. At the least, the guild stores would be slowly padded with credits and common resources like copper an iron. If high-level miners regularly converge on a grinder, the guild could get some valuable resources trickling in to their stores.
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